The present invention relates to a valve for the circulation of fluid. This fluid may notably be exhaust gas from a motor vehicle engine, fresh air bound for the intake side of the engine or a mixture of fresh air and exhaust gases.
Said valve may thus be used to regulate the flow rate of exhaust gas intended to be recirculated to the engine air intake line. In particular, it may be used in engine designs, notably diesel engine designs involving a turbocompressor, said valve being provided on the engine exhaust line downstream of the turbocompressor turbine in order to bleed off some of the gases. It may also be used as a metering valve by being sited along the air intake line or the exhaust gas recirculation line.
A valve comprising a mobile flap and a seal is already known at the present time. Said seal has an opening for the passage of the fluid, said opening being shut off by the flap when the latter is in a closed position.
The fluidtightness of the closure is afforded by flexible tabs protruding from the seal and against which a planar surface of the flap bears in the closed position. However, in order to allow the flap its travel, the tabs are interrupted in the region of the axis about which the flap is articulated, thus impairing sealing.
It is an object of the present invention to redress these problems and the present invention for that reason proposes a fluid circulation valve comprising a mobile flap equipped with a first wing and with a second wing, said valve also comprising a seal, said seal having an opening for the passage of the fluid, at least one of said wings, referred to as the shutoff wing, being able, at least in part, to shut off said opening in the seal when the flap is in a closed position.
According to the invention, said shutoff wing and the other of said wings are provided one on either side of the seal when the flap is in the closed position and said flap comprises an intermediate zone connecting said first wing and said second wing, that passes through said opening in the seal.
Sealing can thus be available along the periphery of the opening in the seal, via the wing or wings which can come to bear against surfaces of the seal, around the periphery of said opening, without impeding the travel of the flap. As for the sealing in the region of the intermediate zone, that can be enhanced by the intermediate zone itself which, by passing right through said opening, may allow flush contact with the seal in the region of said opening.